How is the Vietnam War taught in the U.S?

[SomethingUnrelated]

Inspired by the topic asking how the War of Independence is taught in the UK.

Basically, I ask because, generally, it's held that the US entered Vietnam (amongst other countries during the Cold War, like Korea) for what can be described as less than noble reasons, and then making a bit of a mess of it. For example, at my school, we shortly studied the 'Search and Destroy' tactics, which as far as I understand, was basically US soldiers walking into Vietnam villages and wiping them clean out, regardless of whether the inhabitants were innocent or not. That's one small part of a part of the course on US foreign policy we did.

Anyhow, back to the point. What sort of stance is taken when the Vietnam war is taught to US students? Under what light do they relay the information to you? How is the Vietnam War taught in the US education system?

 

[sir.rutthed]

As far as High School goes, it's kinda glossed over. We cover up until WWII usually, and by then the year's over. I can tell you that a lot of us aren't proud of what we did over there and would probably rather forget it.

 

[Aidinthel]

I recall spending a couple weeks on it. Propping up what amounted to a dictatorship in South Vietnam, pouring more and more resources into a clearly losing conflict...

I don't know about that 'Search and Destroy' thing. There were a few guys who snapped under the strain and just started shooting, but I never heard of it as official policy.

 

[Lionsfan]

Most schools just kinda gloss over it, they instead focus on the Home Issues at the time, and not the fact that technically the US won the Vietnam War

 

[thecoreyhlltt]

there was some mention of it in my history classes, certainly none of the bad stuff like why we went to war and the horrible things done in said war.
the most we talked about it was how drugs began flowing into america, and the soliders who suffere from PTSD

 

[maturin]

I honestly can't remember what we said about Vietnam. And I was in a public school that would have been pretty leftish about it. It was a war that has a much greater cultural memory, often fostered by entertainment, than something Americans tend to have factual historical memories about.

But I think the middle ground in Vietnam is usually lamenting that we stayed for as long as we did. People don't usually regret starting the whole thing, and the biggest tragedy seems to be that we lost.

And that was a good point about the homefront. The struggles of the '60s are hijacking out politics to this day.

 

[Brian Hendershot]

It's really glossed over actually. Which is a bit of a shame. We could have learned a lot from it. Like for example, how it was kept secret from the American public for almost a year or so...

 

[soren7550]

It was barely mentioned in my American History class. We studied the government of the time far more than Vietnam was ever mentioned. Other than that, the Vietnam War was never brought up during my school career. Everything I know about it was either taught to me by my older brothers or I learned on my own (which is the case with most everything I know).

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

People hear tend to get their information on the Vietnam War more through documentaries and war films than through textbooks. Oh it's covered and all but more as just a part of Cold War than a subject in and of itself. What i heard about Vietnam in school was anecdotal, sense a number of my teachers had actually served in the war.

My high school chemistry teacher Mr. Siegel like to tell the students a little war story at the school assembly on Veteran's Day. He did the most Hilarious Vietnamese accent you ever heard.

Same here. I had a math teacher in high school that was in Vietnam and I would hear stories from him right before class, and it was kinda depressing some times.

OT: It's glossed over, even in my Advanced American History class it was, which was strange since we went into great detail about everything else except that. So mainly if you want to know more about the Vietnam War you'd either have to watch a documentary about it or read a book, it's really sad if you think about it.

 

[Madara XIII]

Inspired by the topic asking how the War of Independence is taught in the UK.

Basically, I ask because, generally, it's held that the US entered Vietnam (amongst other countries during the Cold War, like Korea) for what can be described as less than noble reasons, and then making a bit of a mess of it. For example, at my school, we shortly studied the 'Search and Destroy' tactics, which as far as I understand, was basically US soldiers walking into Vietnam villages and wiping them clean out, regardless of whether the inhabitants were innocent or not. That's one small part of a part of the course on US foreign policy we did.

Anyhow, back to the point. What sort of stance is taken when the Vietnam war is taught to US students? Under what light do they relay the information to you? How is the Vietnam War taught in the US education system?

Actually that's the same way we learned about Vietnam here in the U.S.
However I didn't learn the true nature of it till University. In Highschool we really gloss it up here in the U.S. and basically say it was for the containment of communism to sum it up in the neatest fashion possible.

 

[Zarincos]

It was taught to me more or less as this, not a whole lot of time spent on it: Communism was spreading and we wanted to stop it, so we went in and supported the democratic side. We did a lot of things we aren't proud of, and pulled out while we were winning because of protests back home. In a nutshell, we were in the right and hippies prevented us from stopping north (or south, I keep forgetting) from winning.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

France goes to reclaim French Indo-China using the French Foreign Legion. They fare as well as the Americans and abandon the country after Dien Bien Phu. Americans rush in to support a democratic regime under the idea that a communist state would spread throughout South-East Asia. Something something. We send in advisers to train the South Vietnamese. Something something. We send in actual soldiers. We win every battle, but the Tet Offensive shatters morale on the homefront. Eventually Nixon abandons Vietnam. During the war there were some attacks which spilled over into Laos and Cambodia. There was this massacre, and we bombed the hell out of this road. There were some screaming children with no hair because napalm burned it off. Agent Orange gave everybody cancer. We evacuated Saigon with crying Vietnamese parents trying to shove their kids onto the last helicopter out. A lot of Vietnamese made make-shift boats to try to sail to the US. I think our text book dedicated one sentence to Australians fighting in Vietnam? It was more a matter of fact thing, there were Australians.

Then we watched We Were Soldiers which ended with Mel Gibson charging The Patriot style into a camp of Vietcong killing everybody. The battle was won, but a grim Vietcong colonel returns to the field after the Americans leave.

Oh yeah, and the National Guard shot a bunch of students at Kent State. And there was this one lady in a bunch of pictures with North Vietnamese soldiers whom everyone hated. The soldiers came home, and nobody really cared. They were called baby killers by some people. Black people were treated like shit. Lots of people draft dodged.

That's about the extent of what I learned in school on Vietnam.

We covered it more than Operation Desert Storm or the Korean War, but far less than the Revolutionary War or WW2.

 

[SomethingUnrelated]

Inspired by the topic asking how the War of Independence is taught in the UK.

Basically, I ask because, generally, it's held that the US entered Vietnam (amongst other countries during the Cold War, like Korea) for what can be described as less than noble reasons, and then making a bit of a mess of it. For example, at my school, we shortly studied the 'Search and Destroy' tactics, which as far as I understand, was basically US soldiers walking into Vietnam villages and wiping them clean out, regardless of whether the inhabitants were innocent or not. That's one small part of a part of the course on US foreign policy we did.

Anyhow, back to the point. What sort of stance is taken when the Vietnam war is taught to US students? Under what light do they relay the information to you? How is the Vietnam War taught in the US education system?

Actually that's the same way we learned about Vietnam here in the U.S.
However I didn't learn the true nature of it till University. In Highschool we really gloss it up here in the U.S. and basically say it was for the containment of communism to sum it up in the neatest fashion possible.

That's actually remarkably similar to what we were taught. We learned that the US said 'Containment' was their reason for entering Korea and Vietnam, in order to prevent the spread of Communism. I suppose the difference in how the two of us were taught would be the light in which is was shed.

 

[Flailing Escapist]

Pretty much like this:

Spoiler

I'm jk, more like this:

Spoiler

 

[Tomster595]

My teacher actually took a pretty long time on it last year. We covered mostly the strategies, the motivations, major events like the Tet offensive, and the US's public opinion of the war.

 

[Bags159]

In high school we only covered up to World War II. So not at all.

 

[Carlston]

it's not taught all that much, since it was a left over war from the French. Asked us to come in right about they time they left completely.


And it seems everyone loves to ignore that little fact...

here is a snippet

The basic answer is that the U.S. was asked by France, via NATO, to keep the communists from "taking over" the French Territory. We sent troops over only to advise, and from there WE were in it and it just went "to hell in a handbasket" to quote a friend of mine. We left over 58,000 Brothers and Sisters there.

Hope this helps, if not, check your local veterans, VFW,or American Legion Halls and ask really nice, you may find out more.


Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_did_the_Vietnam_War_start#ixzz1NrXrkO3q


So first get the dirty handed nasty US soldier idea out of your minds. Wars are not won by fighting fair, or limiting your targets. They are won by doing what needs to be done. The NVC used the Geneva convention just like Muslim fighters do today.

Hide supplies in villages, threatening the civilians.
Hide weapons in churches, schools, and other targets off limits

And surround said targets with civilians so if they are attacked they get heart sting tugs from their own and make the enemy look bad in public light...


So for the Vietnam war...thank the french.

But how is it taught? Oddly, teachers here magically twist it to just be all our fault and never mention the french.

 

[SomethingUnrelated]

But how is it taught? Oddly, teachers here magically twist it to just be all our fault and never mention the french.

Fairly similar to how we learned it. The French were only fleetingly mentioned, but other than that, it was presented as entirely an American affair.